Double Exposures That Are Actually Worth Looking At

Most double-exposure projects are clichés, falling flat because the gimmick trumps the content. Not so in the case of Stephanie Bassos and Timothy Burkhart. These two friends from Chicago have been working on a double-exposure project for six months now that has found a way to put seeing back at the heart of this technique.

A lot of their success seems to derive from some simple rules they came up with for the project, which is called People vs Places. Bassos, who does a lot of portraiture in her own work, only shoots people when it’s her turn to expose the film. Burkhart, who shoots a lot of landscapes for his personal work, only shoots places when he has the camera. And neither one knows what the other one has shot before it’s their turn.

By sticking to their strengths, and shooting pictures that would stand on their own, Bassos and Burkhart seemed to have arrived at a formula that elevates the double exposures above the other riff raff. Their approach doesn’t work every time, but when it does they create frames that not only have interesting content, but are also beautiful to look at.

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